(Arab. Jumhouriya al ‘Iraqia).
Modern Iraq covers the region of ancient Mesopotamia between two great rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates. With its first royal cities, discovery of writing and advanced overall culture, this country gave birth to the oldest cradle of civilization. Situated at the north-eastern end of the Arab world, Iraq, with an area of 438,317 km2, is an important meeting-place of the various cultures of the Middle East (Persian, Turkish and others).
The country has rich agricultural plains, mountains, deserts and marshes, with cities and towns built along the rivers. The population has recently grown from about 11 million (1975) to some 23·11 million (2000 estimate). Arab Muslims form the majority (75%). Kurds form the second most important ethnic group, and there are also Turkmens (mainly around Kirkuk), Gypsies (kawlīyya) and blacks (in the South). 95% of the population is Muslim (Sunni and Shi‘a sects and some heterodox groups). There are Christians of the Chaldean, Nestorian and Armenian churches. Other religious groups are the Yezidis and the Sabaeens (known as Christians of St John). A very ancient Jewish community existed until 1950.
I. Geographical and historical background
II. Art music and related traditions
SCHEHERAZADE QASSIM HASSAN
From a socio-cultural and musical point of view, Iraq can be divided into four main geographical regions (fig.1). The central plains of ancient Mesopotamia lie at its core. The lower basin of the rivers Tigris and Euphrates stretches from Baghdad to the marshes of the south-east, with their cities Nasiriyah (on the Euphrates) and Amarah (on the Tigris). The marsh region is inhabited by Shi‘a Muslims and Sabaeens.
The mountainous north borders on other Arabic-Turkish and Persian cultures. This region houses important minority ethnic communites and sects: the Sorani (eastern) and Bahdinan (western) Kurds, and Turkmens. It is the home of the ancient Syriac Christian Church and of the Muslim sect and Yezidi other minor sects such as the Shabak and Sarlia.
The desert region comprises three-fifths of Iraq, divided between al-jazīra (north-west) and al-bādiya (south). Bedouin inhabitants are nomadic (Shammār and ‘Iniza tribes) and semi-settled, the latter occupying areas adjoining the fertile plain. On the upper Euphrates, the ancient towns of Anah, Rawah and Hit represent a blend of Bedouin culture with pastoral and rural sedentary town populations of tribal origin.
Finally, the extreme south-eastern region, where the two rivers unite to form the Shatt al-Arab, is influenced by the Gulf and traditions from the Arabian peninsula. It is populated by Arab rural people and city dwellers and by people of African origin. Basra is the major city, and Zubayr is a small town.
The music of Iraq has been documented from very early epochs. Archaeological excavations have uncovered information about music of the Sumerian, Akkadian, Babylonian and Assyrian periods (5th to 1st millennium bce). At the royal cemetery of Ur, three examples of the first lyres of human civilization were found, dating to c2600 bce. Silver flutes, a great number of multi-shaped terracotta rattles, bronze bells, cymbals and clappers made of bronze and shell were also found. Hundreds of reliefs, plaques, murals, stelae, cylinder seals, vases and statues show Mesopotamian musicians playing a wide variety of musical instruments. Scholars have also deciphered cuneiform texts dealing with many aspects of musical theory and practice.
The other important historical period for music was under Abbasid rule (750–1258), when Iraq was the centre of an Islamic multi-ethnic empire and the meeting-point of cultures from Greece, the Middle East and other parts of Asia. Its influence stretched westwards to North Africa and Spain. The first important Arabo-Islamic musicological treatises derive from the Abbasid period, and most significant scholars lived, wrote or studied in Baghdad: al-Kindī (d c874), al-Munajjim (d 912), al-Fārābī (d 950), al-Isfahānī (897–967) and safī al-Din (d 1294).
The catastrophic collapse of Baghdad under the Mongol onslaught shattered its elaborate cultural life and marked the beginning of successive periods of foreign domination by Turkmen tribes, Persians and Ottomans. Musical erudition regressed to such a point that concrete evidence of musical life is scarce, although traces of Turkish and Persian influence are evident in the urban secular classical repertory. (See also Arab music, §I.)
The secular music traditions, instruments and dances of all Iraqis derive from Arab, Kurdish and Turkmen cultures. To a lesser degree, in the extreme south, they may belong to traditions of the Arabian Gulf. Each region of Iraq has its own specific musical features with regard to the secular and sacred functions of music, instruments, dances, and the role of the musician. At the same time, there are characteristics common to the whole of Iraq. Vocal expression is dominant in all Iraqi music, and improvisational free-rhythmic singing and metric songs (including dance-songs) play important roles. The boundaries between art and folk, secular and religious music are not clearly delineated, and interrelations, mutual influences and overlapping repertories are common.
The art music of Iraq revolves essentially around the Arab modal system called maqām (see Mode, §V, 2). Its repertory serves as a formal and melodic reservoir for religious, ritual and secular art music, for instrumental improvisations and sometimes even for arranged music. Prior to the mid-1930s (with the creation of the Fine Arts Institute and formal teaching of written theory), local art musicians were not conscious of the theoretical concept of maqāms as melodic modes. A complex oral verbalized theory existed, and from the 1950s this was combined with the written tool of Arab music theory.
Iraqi Bedouin and rural popular music is, in fact, based on a number of tetrachords known in Arab music, while Iraqi art music (Iraqi maqāms and religious vocal genres) is based on the combination of similar or different tetrachords forming a modal scale of one or two octaves with possible changes of some degrees.
The local performance tradition, al-maqām al-‘irāqī represents an important secular repertory of many semi-improvisational compositions, linking classical and popular poetry and based on a sophisticated unwritten traditional theory. It is believed that the oldest extant repertory, transmitted orally, dates back at least four centuries, probably with some even earlier features.
According to early 20th-century ideas, the seven basic modes or maqāms (maqāmāt asliyya) are rāst, beyāt, segāh, ajam, nawā, hijāz and sabā. All others are ‘derived’ maqāms (maqāmāt far‘iyya). In inventories dating from the 1970s, chahārgāh replaces nawā as a basic maqām. In the 1960s and 70s the Iraqi maqām repertory numbered some 50 individual maqāms. Since then the tradition has undergone certain changes (see §IV below). However, the total number of maqāms in the repertory has always been subject to variation. New maqāms may be introduced and others may be dropped or altered (because they resemble others or because they are difficult to perform). During the 1990s important maqāms continued to be performed in small gatherings, but they were otherwise avoided (for large or non-connoisseur audiences).
Each maqām in the repertory has a particular preconceived multi-parameter scheme concerning its modal, melodic, rhythmic and formal organization. The performer is expected to respect its traditional framework and to enhance its formal skeleton with personal improvisations, ornamentation and musical developments.
Different maqāms make variable use of the following elements. Tahrīr currently designates the opening of a maqām, sung on vocalizations (syllables, words or phrases) and preceding the beginning of the sung verse. Badwa has the same function as tahrīr but differs in its very brief opening. Jaisa, a descending cadence, marks the end of the first part of the maqām. Meyāna is the ‘middle’ formal melodic part in tripartite maqāms, sung in a high register. Sayha, also in a high register, is (unlike mayāna) musically undeveloped. Qarar designates either a descending movement to the lower degree or any sung portion in that register. Quta‘ or awsāl are melodic pieces occurring in any part of the maqām, serving as modulations or structural bridges to higher or lower registers, as aesthetically embellishing sections or as a means to enhance or change a prevailing mood. In general, their place is predetermined, but some are used freely.
In the early 20th century, the secular maqām repertory was performed in five cycles termed fusūl (sing. fasl). The remaining maqāms were sung outside the order of the secular cycle, either in religious cycles or as independent, important maqāms.
Other forms play a role in maqām performance: instrumental rhythmic introductions and solo improvisations, as well as vocal genres. Singers also use free poetic verses followed by popular melismatic songs (ubūthīyya). A pesta (metred song) normally follows each maqām, preparing the audience for the one to follow.
Melodically, the Iraqi maqām repertory draws on the music of all communities living in Iraq. Within it, one finds melodies from Arab rural and Bedouin people, and from Kurds and Turkmens. Melodies from outside Iraq also appear: Turkish, Persian and Arabic material from other parts of the Arab world.
Three sung poetic forms are used in Iraqi maqām proper: (1) the qasīda (classical Arabic ode); (2) the takhmīs (quintary verse based on two hemistiches of a known qasīda, with three added hemistiches); (3) mawwāl (a major colloquial poetic form, also called zheiri). Classical texts are used by 33 Iraqi maqāms, and some 20 maqāms employ the mawwāl.
In secular performances, the Iraqi maqām is accompanied by al-shālghī al-baghdādī (the Baghdad ensemble). This consists of the santūr (hammered dulcimer) and jūza (four-string lute or fiddle with coconut resonator; fig.2) accompanied by two or three drums: tabla (single-headed drum), duff zinjārī (frame drum with discs set into the frame) and naqqāra (double kettledrum). Occasionally a large frame drum replaces the naqqāra. The traditional role of the shālghī ensemble was to anticipate and lead the singer. Some singers prefer to avoid this constraint, choosing to perform with al-takht al-sharqī (the oriental ensemble). Al-takht al-sharqī performed Arab art and light music in Egypt and the Levant and was introduced into Iraq in the 1920s. It consists of the qānūn (plucked zither), nay (end-blown flute), ‘ūd (lute) and two types of drum, one being a frame drum.
The Iraqi maqām is generally performed by a specialist singer known as qāri’ al-maqām. Nowadays other types of singer (mutrīb or mughannī) perform some maqāms, but only real specialists can perform the complete repertory. The best representative of the old school of maqām singing was Rashid al-Qundarchī (d 1945). Other important 20th-century masters were Ahmad Zaydān (d 1938), Muhammad al-Gubanshī (1901–89) and his disciple Yūsuf ‘Umar (1918–87), perhaps the last important maqām singer (fig.3). At present the tradition is in decline, due to lack of patronage.
Before the emergence of modern music and life-styles, the Iraqi maqām was the main form of entertainment for city-dwellers in Baghdad, Mosul and Kirkuk. It could be heard everywhere and was performed at weddings, circumcisions or any secular occasion. Concerts were organized in music-lovers’ homes. Until the 1940s, well-known singers performed for large audiences in a number of public coffee-houses. Certain maqāms were also performed in the traditional gymnastic houses (zūrkhāna) to accompany muscular exercises.
Ever since its creation in 1936, the national radio station has regularly broadcast maqām singing, and from 1950 there have been weekly programmes on the national television. Today maqāms are performed on stage, in concert halls and other modern multi-functional gathering-places (notably, the Museum of Popular Art in Baghdad, on Fridays) but seldom in traditional circumstances.
Qur’anic recitation (qirā’a or tilāwa), call to prayer (adhān), supplication (du‘ā) and glorification (tamjīd) are types of religious chanting performed in mosques. They are not regarded as singing (ghinā’), although they use melodies that follow the rules of the melodic modes used in the Iraqi maqām. Indeed, Qur’anic reciters usually excel in maqām singing, and thanks to them hundreds of Iraqi melodies have been preserved.
Recitation is normally performed solo. Collective recitation is used in teaching and in some Baghdad mosques on the eve of Friday. During recitation of the whole Qur’an, sometimes as many as 30 reciters might successively perform. Alternation between two reciters is common during mourning ceremonies.
Qur’anic recitation has its own local Iraqi style. As elsewhere, it varies between a simple form with limited-range melodies (tartīl) and more developed forms which include improvisation, ornamentation, repetition and changes of register. In the Iraqi school of recitation, a good voice is of prime concern, followed by knowledge of melodies (anghām) and mastery of the linguistic science of recitation (tajwīd). An Institute of Melodic Studies (ma‘had al-dirāsāt al-naghamiyya) exists for teaching these. The rules of tajwīd (correct recitation) are also taught in the Institute of Melodic Studies (Ma‘had al-dirasat al-naghamiyya). In the 1970s the noted religious scholar, prayer leader and maqām specialist Shaykh Jalāl al-Hanafī (b 1915) opened a centre for teaching Qur’anic recitation to women in a 13th-century Baghdad mosque (Jāmi‘ al-Khulafā’).
The Iraqi school of Qur’anic recitation has always been known for using melodies, and in Iraq the use of melody has not been a polemical issue for religious debate. But Qur’anic recitation is not supposed to lead to secular ecstasy or to a possible confusion between purely secular singing and religious recitation. Consequently, religious orthodox authorities sometimes criticize Qur’anic reciters for the beauty of their execution, if it diverts the intent of worshippers.
This widespread and popular ritual, al-mawlīd al-nabawī, is practised in both sacred and secular urban life. Two versions apply to diametrically opposed types of occasion. Mawlīd farah (happy anniversary), based on the text of Ahmad bin Hasan al-Bakrī, is performed on the Prophet’s anniversary or any happy occasion (marriage, circumcision, benediction, fulfilment of a wish or return from Mecca). Mawlīd kidir (sad anniversary), based on the text of Barazanchi, is organized on solemn national and state occasions and to commemorate death.
A mawlīd ceremony is performed in four cycles (fusūl), each composed of a succession of several predetermined maqāms. Vocal parts are performed either by a religious sheikh or by a secular maqām singer who enjoys greater freedom of interpretation here than in secular contexts. The soloists relate the life and deeds of the Prophet in classical odes (qasīda) or mawwāl poems in vernacular Arabic, with intermittent frame drum accompaniment.
Group singing of colloquial metric songs (called tanzila, madih or shughul) follows, with continuous frame drum accompaniment. Tanzila songs usually glorify the Prophet and his family, but they may touch on contemporary social events. An extremely emotive part of the ritual is preseved for popular vocal forms called fragiyyāt (songs of separation). Performed in dialect, these include the rural ubuthiyya and Bedouin rukbanī or ‘atābā.
In many historical circumstances, al-mawlīd rituals have been transformed into platforms for social or anti-colonial protests. A most important performer and composer of tanzila songs was mulla ‘uthmān al-Mausīlli (1854–1923).
The two main Sunni Sufi local orders, Qādiriyya and Rifā‘īyya, use music, poetry and dance as a means to help attain mystical ecstasy in their quest for union with God. The Qādirī rituals (dhikr or tahlīla) are sung without musical instruments and can be performed in mosques. One to four solo cycles, based on some parts of the Iraqi maqām, are sung by the sheikh or a secular performer. This is followed by metric praise-songs madīh (pl. madā’ih) performed by the chorus of maddāha (glorifiers), while devotees perform dance movements with vigorous respiratory exercises based on a repetitive vocal ostinato invoking God. This results in an impressive polyrhythmic and polymelodic effect.
The Rifā‘ī ritual differs in that it involves musical instruments and techniques of body mortification. A classical ode (qasīda) is sung in turn by each glorifier, while the others vigorously beat their frame drums between the lines of sung text. Depending on the intensity of the ritual, the number of frame drums can increase, in addition to cymbals and a kettledrum.
The Mawlawiyya (Mevlevi) order dwindled in Iraq after the fall of Ottoman rule, but some aspects of its traditions persist in other orders. The nay (end-blown flute) and kettledrum were used by the Talabiyya order in Kirkuk, and some malawi dancers regularly perform in Qādirī rituals. Since the 1991 Gulf War, the Kurdish Kasnazaniyya has become the most prominent order in Baghdad, though it was originally based in the north. This order combines Qādirī-style singing with Rifā‘ī techniques of body mortification. (See Islamic religious music.)
The relatively recent creation of this school of ‘ūd-playing is based on conccepts of music that were previously foreign to Iraqi traditions. It was the product of a unique encounter between the Arabo-Ottoman ‘ūd and Western music technique derived from the cello. Its founder was Director of the Fine Arts Institute, the King of Iraq’s cousin, Prince Muhieddin al-Din Haidar (1888–1967) [al–Sharif] of Hijaz in Saudi Arabia, a virtuoso ‘ūd player in Turkish style. He opted for a fundamental change in the status of the ‘ūd from a traditional instrument for accompanying the voice to a solo concert instrument.
He taught the ‘ūd according to the methods and techniques of the violin family. He changed the ‘ūd’s left hand technique, the position of the fingers on the neck (introducing permanent use of the 4th finger), imposed the systematic use of positions and designated strings, and added a sixth single string to the instrument (in addition to its five double strings). These changes increased the instrument’s technical facility and speed of playing.
For many decades, these technical advances were unpopular, rejected by major traditional players and the general listener. Exponents of the Baghdad ‘ūd school were criticized for being unable to play in a traditional group and for not knowing the local music. Not wanting to be marginalized, ‘ūd soloists began using local melodic material based on the Iraqi maqām, and they started performing traditional improvisations.
Among al-Sharif’s many disciples were Salman Shukur (b 1921) and the brothers Djamil Bashir (1921–77) and Munir Bashir (b 1930). Most important from the younger generation are Ali al-Iman (b 1940s) and Nassir Shemma (b 1963; fig.4). The activities of the Baghdad ‘ūd school resulted in a gradual increase in acceptability of instrumental solos in general. Important soloists on other instruments are: Salem Hussayn (b 1923), Khudair al-Shibli (b 1929), Hassan al-Shakartchi and Bahir al-Ridjab (b 1951) on the qānūn; Khidr al-Yas (b 1930) on the nay; Hashim al-Ridjab (c 1921) and Muhammad Zaki (b 1955) on the santūr; Shaubi Ibrahim (b 1925) and Dakhil ‘Arran (b 1960) on the jūza; Jamil Bashir and Ghanim Haddad on the violin. Some percussion players also developed great virtuosity, among them Ahmad Jirgis and Sami Abdul Ahhad.
Iraq, §III: Folk and vernacular traditions
Music is part of the events of social life, both secular and religious. Its importance varies according to the occasion. Secular songs with religious themes and moral ideas are performed by all communities and can figure within any vocal genre. Songs accompany the daily work of shepherds, masons, farmers and women. Between birth and death any circumstances – such as graduation from school, return from pilgrimage or fulfilment of a wish – may also imply the use of music.
In some life-cycle celebrations, such as baptisms among the Yezidi, the religious chanter (qawwāl) sings indoors with the sacred instrumental duo, while secular musicians play in the outer space. Marriage and circumcision ceremonies and calendar feasts are major and complex multiform occasions in which private indoor and collective outdoor festivities are held simultaneously. They have a very wide spectrum of music with a broadly based repertory and may last for as long as seven days.
In urban centres women hold private celebrations where female professional musicians (mullāyāt) perform popular songs accompanied by drums and tambourines. (Before the 1950s Jewish professional musicians (daggagāt) were available, and they used kettledrums in addition to other drums.) Women in the audience participate with responsorial singing, hand-clapping, dancing and ululations. Wealthier families invite Gypsy groups or well-known Iraqi maqām singers, or they may even organize sacred rituals. More recently, local pop singers have come to dominate such festivities.
In rural areas, festive occasions feature collective open-air dances. Dabka is the generic term for any secular communal dance performed respectively by men, women, or men and women together. The dancers form a semicircle holding each other by the shoulders or waist, tapping their feet on the ground. Among Arabs of the upper Euphrates, the collective dance is called shūbī. Both dabka and shūbī are performed to the music of a solo singer accompanied by drum and shawm (tabl wa zurna) or double clarinet (mitbaj). In the extreme south, the ‘ardh and samrī dances are performed by two groups of dancers who sing antiphonally, accompanied by a round shallow double-headed frame drum (tabl al-‘ardh) or other drums. In central Iraq, a dance originally connected with warfare, the sās, is often performed at marriages, circumcisions and other feasts. Two dancers on foot or on horseback brandish swords (or staves) and shields, accompanied with purely instrumental music from the drum-shawm duo and two kettledrums.
Professional Gypsy musicians (kawlīyya) are the most important element of any Arab festive occasion. The main professional musicians of western, southern and central Iraq, they perform in families and enliven any type of Arab festivity, catering essentially for male audiences. A female soloist dances while singing pieces from the rural and Bedouin Arabic repertory or some urban maqāms. A male accompanist plays the wooden monochord spike fiddle (rabāb) or a modern metallic version of that instrument. Extremely popular is the hasha‘ ‘scorpion’ dance (fig.5), in which either the dancer's head and shoulders are flung back or she crouches on her knees, moving to the rhythm of the participants' hand-clapping and verbal interjections of ‘hasha‘’ (‘lie down!’). All central and southern styles are characterized by use of regular rhythmic patterns and brilliant, fast, ornamental and strongly rhythmic sequences.
In mourning ceremonies, the Qur’an is recited for three days in men's gatherings. Sometimes a mawlīd or a dhikr may complete the mourning ceremony. Women's ceremonies last seven days. A female mourner (addāda) poetically recites the merits of the dead person and expresses the sorrow of separation. The women's extreme grief is released by the short and punctuated guttural sounds they produce responding to the mourner's singing. They also beat their chests and faces and perform a mourning dance (shaina). Bedouins usually mourn in silence. However, in certain cases, marāthī (eulogies) are recited by men.
If the dead person was a child, a youth, an unmarried person or was newly married but without children, the family simulates marriage festivities. The ensemble al-mūsīqā al-sha‘biyya (popular music), with its brass instruments of military origin together with the drum and the shawm, is invited to precede the burial procession. Marriage songs are performed around a coffin surrounded by decorated trays with candles. All Iraqi religious communities observe this practice.
Apart from life-cycle ceremonies, sociable gatherings are an important context for popular music performed by amateurs for pleasure, to entertain themselves and their friends. In the north, Turkmen and Kurdish amateur musicians meet in the evening after work to sing songs about love and separation and epics accompanied by the long-necked lute (tunbūr). In rural areas of the central and southern Euphrates, musicians play music in the communal gathering place (mudīf or diwāniyya). They perform poetic creations and ubuthiyya songs, which have great emotional impact. Similarly, Bedouin people of the western desert region sing and play the fiddle (rabāb) in the mudīf. In the south-east Amarah region, rich feudal sheikhs might hire musicians to entertain visitors with various types of song (mhamadaoui, ubūthīyya and pesta) for several nights on end.
Shi‘a Muslims commemorate the martyrdom of the Prophet Muhammad's grandson Imam Husayn at Karbala (central Iraq) in 680 ce with wide-scale and complex ceremonies. They begin on the first of the month of Muharram, continuing for a period of ten to 40 days. Many thousands of pilgrims arrive at Karbala and Kadhimain from all over the Shi‘a world. Ceremonies feature collective responsorial and antiphonal singing, ritual dances, theatrical presentations, body mortifications and instrumental music.
For the first ten days, there are mourning gatherings (al-qirāyāt al-husayniyya). The martyrdom story is developed on a daily basis, with specific focus on a character or major event. Each day several narrators circulate from group to group repeating the story of the day. At women's mourning gatherings a specialist female narrator (mullāya) declaims in a highly dramatic style. Participants weep loudly, striking their faces, chests and thighs according to her instructions, and assistant mullas perform a mourning dance (jūla). At men's sessions, which are held in a public place used by devotees, participants beat their chests and heads or twirl in circles as the male narrator (qāri’/qāri’ husaynī) declaims.
Passion plays (tashābah) portray the historic events surrounding the death of Husayn. They are organized during this ten-day period, either concurrently with the recitation sessions or separately in the street. They are staged with costumes, horses and other decorations. Specific melodic rhythmic motifs and musical instruments symbolize the major characters of the drama. An ensemble of ‘sad instruments’ plays when the drama concerns Husayn, and long trumpets adopt the scornful tones of his enemies with ‘Umayyad melodies’.
Events culminate on the tenth of Muharram, ‘Ashūrā (‘the tenth’). Thousands of participants from different regions and countries form processions. In each procession group (dasta) the people respond to a solo lead singer, beating their chests in rhythm to the words or scourging their backs with metallic chains to the accompaniment of the instrumental ensemble (fig.6). Here there is no prescribed melody: Bedouin, rural and even pop melodies can be heard alongside Bahraini, Indian or Persian melodies sung by pilgrims.
These rituals are practised by the African-derived population in Basra. A musical ceremony, dagg (pl. dgūg), which implies music, songs, ritual dances and a specific ensemble of musical instruments, is regarded as an offering made to conciliate the good spirits and is never addressed to an evil spirit. Depending on the type of spirit, which varies according to its nature and familial or tribal origins, one of a number of musical traditions is prescribed. In all musical ceremonies, solo singing alternates with mixed group responsorial singing. Repetitive rhythm, provided by African-type drums, is a fundamental element of any possession ceremony. The six-string lyre (tambūra) appears only in the most widespread and important ceremony, which is called al-nūbān.
Iraq, §III: Folk and vernacular traditions
Social attitudes towards musicians are equivocal. They are regarded as indispensable for the communal expression of joy, and their talent is recognized and appreciated. At festivals and social gatherings the very best musicians are sought out.
Amateur musicians command respect, but it is traditionally deemed to be degrading for professional musicians to provide entertainment for remuneration and to depend on the whims of others. The situation changed somewhat in the 1970s, when modern institutions gave musicians diplomas, job security and welfare support. The male professional drum and shawm duo (tabl wa zurna) is common throughout Iraq. These musicians perform solely in a secular context, at popular dances and festivities.
In the north, professional instrumentalists are often drawn from the Yezidi sect or minority ethnic groups. They provide musical accompaniment to the various collective dances. The amateur ‘āshūq (‘mystic lovers’) or shu‘arā’ al-‘ishq (‘poets of mystic love’) are itinerant, travelling from village to village singing religious songs and chronicles of their people. They compose words and music and play the long-necked lute.
Among the true Bedouin nomads of the west, there are no professionals. The three terms used to designate the musician relate to the text rather than to the music itself: al-shā‘ir (‘poet’), rā‘ī al-qasīd (‘guardian of the poem’) and al-adīb (‘man of letters’). Professional musicians, al-qāsūd (‘he who searches’) or al-shā‘ir al-mutakassib (‘poet who expects to be paid’), are found among the semi-settled tribes and among the Sliba, the only tribe willing to perform at other people's festivities for financial gain. Among the peasant populations of rural regions, the very act of earning a living from music automatically excludes the individual from his group. The peasants play for their own enjoyment. For celebrations they may hire the professionals of the region: Gypsy musicians or players of the drum and shawm.
In the Basra region of the south-east, contrary to Mesopotamian soloistic traditions, musicians play collectively in ensembles. The black inhabitants of Zubayr have polyrhythmic shadda ensembles with multiple drums and frame drums. Another type of instrumental group is known as the khasshāba ensemble of Abūl’-Khasib, and essentially employs hourglass drums. In both these ensembles, singers, instrumentalists and hand-clappers have a complex division of musical parts. They are remunerated communally for their performances, but as individuals they are not professional musicians.
Iraq, §III: Folk and vernacular traditions
Throughout Iraq there are two types of song: melismatic and rhythmically measured or metrical. Melismatic songs are solos in free rhythm, which facilitates improvisation, whereas metrical songs are sung in unison, responsorially or antiphonally (with a soloist). Some metrical songs are dance-songs.
In the north, among the Kurds, Turkmens and Assyrians, the most prevalent melismatic form is the epic song, usually performed without instrumental accompaniment. It begins with a high-pitched cry that gradually descends; when the singer runs out of breath, the group sustains the tonic as a murmured drone, enabling the soloist to pause before continuing. Common themes are love, separation, war, history and diverse social events.
Among urban Turkmens the most popular unmetred song types are the quriat and ghazal, performed in maqām style. Kurdish lauk and hairan songs are based on unmetred poetic prose. Intense vibrato and regular changes of register are stylistic characteristics of the hawra songs.
Among Bedouin and rural Arabs, poetic structure determines the song type. Bedouin in particular sing for the pleasure of the words, not for the musical sound. The ‘Bedouin ode’ (qasīd badawī) is similar to the classical qasīda. As in other well-known forms, the hadī and hijaynī camel songs, short phrases are repeated several times, their compass rarely exceeding a 4th or 5th.
Semi-settled Bedouin sing the ‘atābā, the swehlī and the nayel (also known as ‘rabāb songs’). The ‘atābā is attributed to the Jibur tribe of the Tigris region and also found around the Euphrates, a strophic quatrain based on classical prosody with aaab rhyme scheme. Short sung phrases alternate with longer melismatic passages within the limited tonal range of tetrachords. In the Tigris region the ‘atābā is followed by the swehlī (based on two unrhymed hemistichs) or the nayel (rhyming two-lined verses). The latter is said to have been invented by a woman, and is especially sung by boatmen and horticulturalists. Bedouin songs are concerned with love, separation, incitement to battle and Bedouin life, e.g. sheep-shearing, well-digging or the harvest (among the semi-settled tribes).
In the Mesopotamian plain there are two main melismatic song types: the ubuthiyya and mawwāl. The ubuthiyya (‘that which gives pain’) is called ‘the lady of all singing’. It is popular among urban, rural and Gypsy populations of the middle and southern Euphrates around Nasiriyah, and also in the Tigris region of Amarah (under the variant term, athiyya). It is a quatrain, composed in colloquial Arabic, based on classical prosody with a rhyme scheme aaab. The first three hemistiches are monorhyme ending with a homonym, while the last line, identifying the ubuthiyya, should end ‘-eyya’ or ‘-iyya’.
Melodically the ubuthiyya is based on different Iraqi naghms of maqāms also known in urban music. Iraqi specialists identify more than 30 styles of ubuthiyya, whose names relate to geographical locations, ethnic groups, tribes etc. The vocal lines are extended melismas of quite a limited melodic range (within a tetrachord or a 5th). Each strophe is followed by a collective murmured drone on the tonic, called wanna (moaning). Sometimes rhythms are produced with a string of beads on a tray or table or, recently, the single-headed drum. The ubuthiyya is also popular in Baghdad, within the mawlīd ritual and maqām evening (see §II, 3 and 1 above). It has its own urban composers, singers and styles.
The mawwāl, a speciality of Amarah, is one of the most popular genres of sung poetry throughout the country. The term also designates any free improvisational style of singing (including poetic forms other than the true mawwāl). Sources state that this genre originated in Baghdad during the Abbasid period. The mawwāl poetry known in Iraq is mawwāl baghdādī, also called zheirī (after one of its poets) or mawwāl musaba‘ (‘seven-line’ mawwāl) because it consists of seven lines (in aaabbba rhyme scheme). Mawwāl poetry uses colloquial Arabic with particular metres often derived from classical prosody. It is sung within about 20 Iraqi classical maqāms.
Mawwāl is difficult to sing: the unity of its seven unseparated lines must fit into long melismatic improvised melodies. It may be performed with a collectively sustained murmured tonic (without instruments) or with a single instrument or (for urban mawwāls) an ensemble. Nowadays many contemporary urban pop singers perform parts of the mawwāl with interspersed fast rhythmic passages.
Each melismatic song is usually followed by a syllabic song, generically termed pesta. These refrain songs are either performed by a chorus or antiphonally, with a singer and chorus. Pestas are composed in colloquial regional uninflected Arabic and are not usually based on classical metres. Pestas can take different forms such as the tawshīh and murrabba‘ in urban centres. Strophes are usually interchangeable and independent in meaning.
In rural areas, women compose and perform pestas, but it is not an exclusively female genre. The best known is a two-line verse called darmī or ghazal banāt (girls' love songs). This allows for a great variety of musical interpretation within a light rhythmically measured song style. These songs are usually concerned with love, separation, life's hardships, exploitation and oppression, and other subjects relating to women's experience. Many urban pestas also use this poetry.
Metric dance-songs known as shūbī regroup some ten styles that have certain common characteristics: binary rhythm, concentration on amorous themes and formal poetic structure designed to be sung. The main styles are: shimālī, mollāya, maymār, za’lān, il mani, mejana, waweliyya and abū m’anna. They are based on a four-line strophe with aaab rhyme scheme, each verse preceded by a rhyming two-line refrain containing the name of each song style as the last word of the first line. The solo singer performs short melodic sentences, and the dancers respond. Musical accompaniment is provided by the double clarinet, and rhythmic sounds from hand-clapping, finger-snapping and the dancers' feet on the ground. Shūbī styles are performed by settled populations of tribal origin.
The hosa is a chant inciting courage, honour and chivalry during tribal wars, national, political and other solemn occasions and even marriage festivities. It is performed responsorially by a male leader (mihwal) and a group who dance tapping their feet rhythmically on the ground. In the west, the Bedouin hosa is sung with the rabāb and based on short-line quatrains. The rural hosa has different poetic metres.
In the Basra region, most songs of the black population are pentatonic and use vernacular Arabic with some African words. They are performed by a male soloist integrated into the mixed responsorial group. The shadda style of Zubayr reflects both classical Arabian sawt singing and the polyrhythmic Gulf style with communal hand-clapping that supports the vocal line.
Iraq, §III: Folk and vernacular traditions
The great variety of instruments in Iraq is distributed according to different ways of life (nomadic or settled), and cultural and geographical conditions. In specific cases, ethnic origin and religion are operational factors.
The north has the greatest variety of aerophones: the nay (reed or metal end-blown flute, also common in other regions), the shabbāba (wooden flute) played by the Yezidis and the masūl (duct flute) played by shepherds and young people. The Turkmens of Kirkuk use the bālābān or qarnāta, a particular type of straight cylindrical shawm with a broad double reed. It serves the same purpose as the zurna (conical double-reed aerophone), which is common throughout the country and is always accompanied by the tabl (double-headed cylindrical drum; fig.7). The most characteristic instrument of this region is the tunbūr or sāz (long-necked lute), which is used only among the Turkmens and the Kurds. It accompanies songs performed at social gatherings, indoor and outdoor, and at the esoteric secret ceremonies of heterodox Islamic sects such as the Shabak and the Sarlia. The Yezidi allow the use of the long-necked lute in sacred places such as the valley of Lalech (north-east of Mosul), where the presence of the secular tabl wa zurna duo is not allowed.
Among the nomadic Bedouin, the chief instrument is the rabāb, a one-string fiddle with a rectangular body. The rabāb with concave sides is used by semi-settled tribes. Gypsies use the latter or, more often, a metal oildrum called galan. The rabāb is played in the tribe's main tent (mudhif) and anywhere Bedouin go. The coffee pestle and mortar is also used for its rhythmic quality: every Arab sheikh depends on an expert who pounds the beans to a rhythm that identifies the chief and the tribe and serves to summon members of the tribe to discuss matters of the day.
In rural Mesopotamia, three instruments are common. The mitbaj, a double clarinet with six finger-holes on each pipe, is used by shepherds and to lead the communal dances at important festivities. The tabl, drnga or khishba (single-headed drum made of wood or clay) and duff (frame drum with discs), usually played by women, are the main rhythm instruments. Among amateur singers, the use of instruments is regarded as shameful, but when rhythm is needed the singers keep time with their string of beads or beat an ordinary tray or any other object.
In Basra there is a wide variety of membranophones: tabl, kuenda (kettledrums of different shapes and sizes) among the blacks, msondo (big single-headed drums in the shape of a truncated cone) and pīpa (drum on a pedestal; fig.8). The latter, sometimes accompanied by the six-string tambūra (lyre) or lapinka (conch), are used in black ensembles (‘did), which perform for entertainment and for the rituals of spirit possession. The kasar (small double-headed drum beaten with a stick) is played by black women in their own possession ceremonies to signal the end of the trance. Influenced by the music of the Gulf, the inhabitants of Zubayr play the mrwasī, a small double-headed drum about 13 cm in diameter, which accompanies the vocal type fann al-sawt (‘art of the voice’) and the tabl al-‘ardh, a double-headed frame drum used for the ‘ardh dance of Bedouin origin.
During the second half of the 20th century, traditional music was affected by fundamental changes within Iraqi society. These include significant migration from rural areas to cities, the growth of urbanization and literacy, and a general redistribution of wealth. In the 1970s, traditional music faced difficult changes and challenges.
In 1969 the Ministry of Information and Culture created a new children’s school of music and ballet to exist alongside the old Institute of Fine Arts, which had been established in the 1930s. The aim of the new school was to form a generation of young educated musicians, learning essentially Western music from elementary to secondary levels. In 1971 the Ministry opened the Institute of Iraqi Melodic Studies to provide a six-year training in Iraqi and Arab music.
An attempt to preserve and encourage traditional music led to the creation of the first Centre for Traditional Music in 1971, on individual initiative and hosted by the radio station. It undertook the first-ever documentation and classification of Iraqi music through the systematic collection of field recordings. In 1977 it was annexed by the Ministry of Culture (within the Department of Music, which had been established in 1973). At that time, the Centre for Traditional Music had already recorded, documented and catalogued 4000 audiotapes and assembled a collection of musical instruments and 78 r.p.m. records.
The Department of Music's principal aim was to centralize government policy and gradually regroup existing musical institutions and activities. Cultural policy tended to encourage the establishment of national dance and music troupes. The older Al-Rashid dance group, created with the advent of cinema and theatre, was renamed the National Troupe of Folk Dance. It presented stylized stage performances of Iraq's local folkdances. Similar troupes were established in Basra and Erbil. In 1975 a state traditional music ensemble was founded to represent Iraq's urban rural and Bedouin musics. These various national troupes presented regular concerts at home and in capital cities abroad. One of the most important official achievements of the Department of Music was the establishment in 1977 of a workshop for making lutes (‘ūd).
Besides traditional music, European-style symphonic music was being taught at the Institute of Fine Arts. The National Symphony Orchestra, founded in 1959, began to provide regular concerts of European Classical and Romantic music, and occasional performances of local compositions arranged for orchestra. A few Iraqi composers have been trained in the Western idiom, the most important being Farīd Allahwerdī (b 1924). Pianists Beatrice Ohanissian and Agnes Bashīr have composed some symphonic poems. In 1969 the Ministry of Culture and Information created a children's school of music and ballet to reach Western music from elementary to secondary levels.
Around the 1970s, with the advent of mass media, musicians from remote regions came into contact with many styles of arranged music: Western, popular, Arabic and foreign variety music. Professional musicians and decision-makers saw the acculturation of regional styles as a sign of progress and encouraged it. Songs were less vulnerable to change, but Western instruments or traditional Arab instruments from other regions often replaced local instruments, and the size of small traditional ensembles grew considerably. Harmonization and orchestration were encouraged, although outside media and official circles genuinely original styles prevail.
The musical policy of the 1970s did not foster the traditional transmission of the urban Iraqi maqām music through its great masters. Today patronage of the Iraqi maqām through private concerts has been seriously affected as a consequence of widespread financial impoverishment following the 1991 Gulf War and subsequent economic sanctions. Most of the great masters have died without comparable successors taking their place. In the aftermath of the war, Iraqi maqām specialists withdrew and announced the end of the traditional music. Yet, after its seeming disappearance, it recovered and once again regained its place as an emblem of Iraqi cultural identity.
Since the 1991 Gulf War, an important local popular song movement has emerged. It combines traditional vocal aesthetics with contemporary instrumentarium, including use of electronic instruments. New Iraqi singing stars are considered among the most popular stars in the entire Arab world.
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